My Journey Becoming a Vegetarian

Monthly Archives: April 2013

In 2011 livestock consumed nearly 29.9 billion pounds of antibiotics. To put it another way, the livestock industry is now consuming nearly four-fifths of the antibiotics used in the US.

I am moving to Raleigh, North Carolina in 9 days so I have been trying to eat up food that I already have on hand. Now most recipes I came across for acorn squash included brown sugar or syrup to make it more of a sweet dish. I went a different route with garlic, rosemary, and onions. You could definitely add some other vegetables to this recipe, just throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand! Plus, roasted veggies are good cold as leftovers!

1 acorn squash

5 garlic cloves

1/3 yellow onion

1/2 stick of salted butter

rosemary- fresh or dried

Preheat oven to 400

Grease the bottom of a 13in X 9in pan

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and the stringy parts. Cut the ends of the squash off. Slice the squash into pieces about 1/2 inch thick.

Put the pieces of squash in the pan with the cloves of garlic and slices of onion. Add pieces of fresh rosemary or sprinkle rosemary liberally across the vegetables. Spread pieces of butter across the pan.

Cook in the oven for about 30-40 minutes flipping the pieces of squash over half way through.

I just found out about this, so this started a few days ago. But now through May 5 they are broadcasting 3 interviews each day with experts about food. Their site reads, “John Robbins is interviewing 24 of the world’s leading experts in movements for healthy, sustainable, humane and conscious food for all. You can listen to each broadcast via teleconference or streaming webcast. In addition, all the presentations are available on 24 hour replay for no charge. Throughout the summit, this page is your point of entry to all the gamechanging presentations.”

“All fruit is alkaline and therefore helps neutralize acid in the body. It is not alkaline if it has been subjected to heat, either by cooking or pasteurization, or by coming into contact with food in the stomach. Then it is acid and it stays acid, and contributes greatly to the problems associated with a predominantly acid-producing diet.” -Harvey Diamond

I recently read the book Eat for Life by Harvey Diamond. In it it discuses the proper pairing of food to aid in digestion. Starch can only be digested in an alkaline environment, and proteins can only be digested in an acid environment. Vegetables are easily digested and he recommends eating a serving of vegetables with each meal. Raw foods contain the enzymes needed to digest the food that cooked food has killed off. Fruit on the other hand is the only food that is not digested in the stomach, but passes through the stomach and is digested in the intestines. To eat fruit properly Harvey Diamond recommends eating the fruit alone and on an empty stomach so all the benefits of fruit can be realized. If it is paired with other food it is forced to stay in the stomach while the food is digested and it causes it to essentially rot in the stomach. He also talks about the 3 natural body cycles; appropriation, assimilation, and elimination cycles. From roughly 4AM-noon our body is in the elimination cycle (assuming you wake up at around 8AM). It is when the eliminative processes of the body are at their most heightened. Eating only fruit until noon helps the body to streamline and optimize the activities of the elimination cycle.

So each morning I try to stick to a fruit only routine (after my shot of wheatgrass that is!). This smoothie recipe does include mint, which obviously isn’t a fruit but I would think it is such a small amount and it should be digested easily. This smoothie is really delicious and since it is green I had to put it in an Ohio University cup, Go Bobcats! Throw the following ingredients in the blender and enjoy!

Ignorance is never an excuse for not knowing something that you are putting in your own body

I watched the documentary called Killer at Large: America’s Greatest Threat on Netflix. To watch it on your computer watch it here. Now this documentary isn’t a direct vegetarian or vegan documentary, but it does tie back to support a plant based diet. The documentary starts off with a shocking story of a 12 year old girl weighing 218 that was having liposuction as a solution to her problematic diet. It focuses on the dangers of processed foods, and the health problems today from the evolution of food supported by the USDA. The main points are linked to the harm of current advertisements that target children, and connection between the USDA and big “junk food” companies.

Why is food that is banned in other countries good enough for Americans? I can’t get this image out of my mind of us being a giant dumpster that screams, “You don’t want it, we’ll take it! We’ll eat anything as long as its cheap!”

This article by Cristina Goyanes appeared in Shape on January 15, 2013. It lists 13 food additives that have been banned in other developed countries but are regularly inserted into products here in the US. This is further incentive to READ YOUR LABELS. KNOW YOUR INGREDIENTS. ~Julie@Sleuth4Health

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“For numerous suspicious and disturbing reasons, the U.S. has allowed foods that are banned in many other developed countries into our food supply,” says nutritionist Mira Calton who, together with her husband Jayson Calton, Ph.D., wrote the new book Rich Food, Poor Food due out this February.

So I have a little break between my classes today. I am at one of my favorite local coffee houses. I am enjoying my (free) large iced vanilla latte thanks to my rewards card. The salad is made from shagbark black beans, spelt berries, corn, red cabbage, cilantro, carrots, red onions, cumin, sea salt, and pepper. It is delish! Just thought I’d share.

In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people. –Ruth Harrison

As my final semester of college (or at least as an undergraduate) comes near an end I have been really busy lately. On top of final exams, assignments, and presentations I am preparing to move several states away. So I am trying to squeeze in posts when I can!

As I have said before, I love making soups because they provide multiple meals. Soups are usually better the next day anyway! So I decided to make this soup on the first 80 degree day of the year, which was probably not good planning.

As a note, the color of my soup is a little different than when you order it at a Chinese restaurant because I added the egg too early because I didn’t follow the recipe (oops!). So make sure to add the egg once the soup is nice and hot. I also kept adding more chili sauce because I like it spicy! Plus, I used “hot n spicy” pre-seasoned tofu, and restaurants usually use plain tofu. So the orange seasonings dissolved in the soup.

Ingredients

dried mushrooms –any combination of padi straw, shitake, cloud ears, lily buds (I did 1/2 oz dried padi and 1 oz dried shitake based on what I could find in my small town)

32 oz vegetable broth

1 T sesame oil

2-3 T chili sauce (I did about 5 in mine)

1 T rice vinegar

1 T soy sauce

6 oz hot ‘n spicy smoked tofu cut into tiny squares

1 beaten egg (vegan without!)

8 oz sliced bamboo shoots

3 oz sliced water chestnuts

2 green onions, chopped

2 ladles of residual water after soaking the mushrooms

salt and pepper

Soak the mushrooms in water for about 30 minutes.

While the mushrooms are soaking, make the broth. Mix the vegetable broth, sesame oil, chili sauce, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste, and modify broth to taste. Heat the broth.

Add bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and mushrooms. Add 2 ladles of water from the soaked mushrooms for additional flavor.

This is the problem with the American diet. Corporate America has infiltrated the USDA and has allowed these unhealthy foods to be the staple of the American diet. Most people don’t think twice about consuming this food. And we wonder why we are the most unhealthy developed nation, and diseases that were rare or never heard of have ballooned in the last 2 decades.

Warning, this video is graphic in nature. Ten minutes in I was crying and I am now 21 minutes in and I’m not sure I can finish this documentary. It just breaks my heart watching this. Why do we allow this type of behavior, and why do we think we can treat other living beings this way? Uhh it just makes me sick to my stomach.

“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man” – Mohandas Gandhi

This recipe is a grown-up twist on a grilled cheese sandwich.

Ingredients

bread

mayo or butter

pesto

2-3 slices of mozzarella

chevre goat cheese

spinach

1/2 avocado

Spread pesto on one piece of bread. Then layer the sandwich with mozzarella, spinach, goat cheese, avocado, mozzarella, and slice of bread. Use either butter or mayo on the side of the bread that will touch the skillet. Cook each side of the sandwich for about 3-4 minutes on each side. I think this sandwich would also work well with a panini type of toaster, but I haven’t made it that way yet. I tested this out on my mom this weekend when she visited me and she approved!